CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The next afternoon, Jess and Allison sat under the shade of the oaks while the boys tossed a football. Jess hated the nearly unbearable heat and humidity. Yet, discussing the house, the project and the Ouija board incident seemed safer to do on the back lawn than sitting in the Great Room—however wonderfully air-conditioned that might be. The maids were in today, and the painters were finishing up in some of the guest rooms.
Catching Gage’s throw, Bryan paused, wiping his forehead. “You’d think with a house that size the renovations would’ve included a pool.”
Gage peeled off his shirt, which almost made Jess forget about Riley and whatever else was going on inside Siler House. Almost.
“We could leave,” Bryan said. “Call our folks and tell them to come for us.”
Scowling, Gage shook his head. “Not mine. They’d remind me this is my best chance to talk with Ben. Besides, I made them a promise I’d stick this whole experiment out.”
“I’ve tried,” Allison said. “But they won’t even take my calls.” Her eyes met Jess’s and she recalled their earlier conversation about how Siler House was drawing them all in. It was sick, like some dysfunctional relationship or addiction. Yet Jess felt helpless against it. It was happening to the others, too.
“I’d never hear the end of it,” Jess said. “And my mom would harp on me to go back on medications.”
“Better than being here,” Allison said.
“It’s not so bad.” But Gage’s voice was far from convincing. “Well, if you take out the whole thing with Brandt and the history of the place and all.”
“HA HA!” Allison replied sarcastically.
“All I know is that I’m getting tired of practicing,” Bryan said. “Quarters, pens, books, junk from the basement. My headaches have headaches and I’m tired of all the nosebleeds, too.”
He shrugged. “At least Dr. Brandt doesn’t seem interested in pushing us as hard. Yesterday and the day before, he was so determined. All he did was tell me to try harder, to focus. Now, it’s like he doesn’t care if we practice or not. All he did this morning was walk around the house touching things. He’s acting like he’s in some museum or tourist shop.”
Jess had noticed the same thing.
“What about EPAC?” she asked. “Does anyone know if he’s talking to them?”
Everyone shrugged or shook their head.
“Well, no matter how you look at it, we’re still an experiment,” Gage said. “But I don’t think Brandt had planned to be another test subject.”
Bryan spun the football in his hands. “You think EPAC knew?”
“Dude, I don’t think anyone knew,” Gage replied. “There’s something really wrong with this place. EPAC and the doc thought we were going to be the only ones affected. They couldn’t have been more wrong.”
Bryan ran a hand through his hair. “No wonder this place has been shut down for so long. So now what? What are we going to do about it?”
“We’re here until Siler House and Riley think we’re ready,” Allison said.
Jess forced herself to breathe. “Do you really think the house can keep us here?”
Allison nodded. Then Gage, then Bryan. They felt the same way she did.
“They call it Stockholm Syndrome,” Bryan told her. “It’s when captives start sympathizing with their captors. We know we should leave. But we also want to stay. We can’t explain why, but we do.”
Jess glanced toward the gates, wishing she didn’t already know it was true—that the damn house really had trapped them. She suspected that even if they walked up to the gates right now, no one would be able to go through them. She hadn’t even tried. She’d been afraid since the Ouija board incident, and yet something about walking up to the gates scared her too. The house had gotten to them all. It should have been impossible, but then half of what they all were here for should be impossible, too. How had she ever loved this place? “So now what?”
“We wait,” Allison said. “We wait until Siler house thinks we’re ready, or until it decides to kill us.”
“It won’t kill us,” Jess said. “Wouldn’t it already have done that?”
Bryan made a scoffing noise. “What do you think it’s going to do, Jess? What do you think it would have done to me with those knives? To any of us?”
Jess hadn’t wanted to think about that. She’d tried to put it out of her mind. But, the house did have plenty of opportunities and yet, here they all were—among the living.
“Hey! Ease up, okay?” Gage said, his tone defensive.
“Jess is right,” Allison said. “Riley was just playing with us. Riley or the house could have killed us had either of them wanted to. But that doesn’t mean they can’t. Or won’t.”
“I don’t get it,” Bryan huffed. “So if we’re all being held here, then why doesn’t EPAC step in? If Dr. Brandt isn’t reporting back, then why the hell aren’t a bunch of cars with tinted windows and men in suits invading the place?”
Gage shrugged. “It means he is reporting back to them. Just like we’re doing with our folks. He’s telling them what they want to hear to some degree or other. He’s just not telling them everything.”
“This EPAC...” Jess tucked a strand of flyaway hair behind her ear. “What’s going to happen?”
Bryan kicked at the base of the oak. “It isn’t good, that much is clear.” He looked at Allison. “You know, don’t you?”
“Yeah” she said. “I know enough. Maybe too much.”
Gage took a seat next to Jess, but his eyes never left Allison. “Enlighten us.”
Allison picked at the ground, breaking off a blade of grass. It grew like crabgrass here, broad and thick. “I didn’t say anything before because, you know...”
Gage motioned with his hands for her to hurry up and tell the story. “Yeah, yeah. We’d have thought you were a hot mess of crazy the way you freaked out all the time. It’s okay, Allison. Tell us. Tell us everything and don’t leave a thing out.”
Unfazed by Gage’s impatience, or maybe comforted in the knowledge he’d believe her, she continued. “When they called a priest and exorcised the demons in me, there were these men who came. One of them said he was from an organization that’d help me control the demons and their power. In turn, I might be able to help them. Talk about crazy, right?”
“Help them with what?” Jess asked.
“No idea, and they wouldn’t say,” Allison replied. “Before long, they were talking to my parents, who wanted the hospital to keep me because they were afraid of me. Next thing I know, I’m being sent here as part of some experiment. I get the feeling that once this is all over with I’m not going home.”
“You don’t know that,” Jess said reassuringly. “Maybe your parents—”
“My parents don’t want me. I understand what Riley went through on this one.” She lifted her head and offered them a weak smile as she blinked back tears. “That’s what scares me. That I’ll become like him.” She paused and no one spoke, instead waiting for what she’d say next. “Anyway, after what I did, everyone was afraid of me. I don’t blame them.”
Gage spoke softly. “It’ll be okay, Allison. Just tell us what you did.”
She stared up at Siler House, taking in the entire structure, checking every window. Jess looked too, but no one, human or otherwise, looked back.
Allison resumed picking at the grass. “The longer we stay, the more it takes.”
“No,” Bryan said softly. “Tell us about what happened, Allison. Not about the house. Tell us what happened before you came here.”
“EPAC isn’t the only one who needs our abilities. Siler House wants it, too. Dr. Brandt and EPAC haven’t figured that out. Yet. But they will. When Siler House takes us, it’ll take us all. The demons said so.”
Bryan knelt next to her. “You said they weren’t with you any more. You said—”
“I told the truth,” Allison interrupted. “The demons told me before I came here. They told me they’d be back. They said they’d come and take the others, too.”
“So they told you about us?” Gage asked.
Allison shook her head. “No, not like that. They just said there would be others with me. Others who could see. The demons are cryptic, just like ghosts, which is why I don’t trust them. Why I think they’re all bad. None of them ever come out and tell you anything straight.” She glanced at Jess as though this bit of explanation was for her benefit alone, and Jess supposed it was.
“But, it had to be you guys they were talking about, right?” Allison searched their faces.
“Go on,” Bryan urged.
“At first, when the demons were inside me, I just thought bad things. They were awful thoughts, but that’s all they were. People do that from time to time, right? I didn’t think it was the demons then. I thought it was depression or stress. Every day, my thoughts became less my own and more like someone else’s—like a lot of someones. By then, they’d taken control. They told me to do things.”
“What things did you do?” Bryan asked.
“I didn’t do anything,” Allison said. “Well, technically I didn’t do anything. I watched. I set fire to a girl’s house. She’d been bullying me. Her whole family was inside. They couldn’t get out.” Her smile was almost bittersweet. Her eyes were also distant, and it made the hair stand up on the back of Jess’s neck despite the heat.
“I climbed a tree across the street and watched everything from there. I heard them screaming. The flames…they were so… beautiful.” She plucked another blade of grass and blinked, snapping back to the present. “I didn’t even need a match.”
No one moved.
“The firefighters tried to save them,” Allison went on. “The flames were too much. When the firemen went to put out the fire, I ran at them, screaming. They all thought I was friends with the family inside, but I was just upset they were putting out the fire.”
Allison looked at them. “I tried to tell them the demons would be angry.”
Jess rubbed her arms. Allison was still one of the most unsettling things about Siler House.
Allison pulled her legs up against her chest. “They locked me away even though no one could prove I’d done anything wrong. The arson investigator determined the cause was faulty wiring. I knew better. They put me away for observation because I kept telling them I set the fire, even though the real me hadn’t meant to. The logical, moral me was horrified I could do such a thing. At first, I don’t think they believed me. Until I killed one of the orderlies.”
Allison tugged at her hair as she stared off into nothing. “I warned him. Told him I didn’t like needles. I fought him off. He went to get help and I…they…the demons, snapped his neck. From somewhere inside, I begged and pleaded for them not to kill him. I curled up on my bed and stared at his body. After awhile, I sort of hid somewhere inside my head. I call it my ivory tower.”
She laughed, a tear escaping down her cheek. “Run away, Allison! Hide!”
Jess clasped a hand over her mouth. Her heart ached for Allison, and yet she understood why her aunt had recoiled the way she had that first day.
Allison wiped at the tear. “That’s where I stayed. Hidden in my ivory tower.” She laughed at this, but no one else joined her.
“I don’t know the details or how it happened, but after a month in the psych ward I woke up, free of the demons. A priest was in the room. And those men in suits. The only reason I’m here instead of some mental ward or detention center is because of EPAC. Because of this study. So see? I don’t have anywhere to go.”
Tears ran freely down her cheeks. “I hate myself. I hate what they made me do! I lost…” She shuddered and choked back a sob. “I lost everything. Everyone. You guys are all I have. The only ones with half a chance at understanding me because you’re all different, too. I can’t leave and I can’t let this place get you. I don’t know how I can stop it, or even IF I can stop it. What if the demons come for me first? What if Riley gets to me? What then?”
Jess went to Allison and wrapped an arm around her. In that moment if didn’t matter that she was afraid of her. “I’m so sorry, Allison.”
“Oh, shit,” Bryan said. “I get it. Holy shit, I get it. You think that part of the experiment is to—”
“It’s speculation, but yeah. They’d use Allison as some sort of weapon,” Gage interrupted. “She can start fires and snap necks without lifting a finger. Look at her. Who’d suspect?”
Allison nodded. She turned to Bryan. “As long as they think they can control it. As long as they can find a way to banish the demons at will.” She turned her eyes to Jess and Gage. “As long as they can find them, conjure them and be able to communicate with them whenever they want.”
Jess understood, too. “Allison isn’t the only one, is she?”
“Damn!” Bryan raked rubbed the back of his neck. “If what you say is true, Jess locates the ghosts and is the communicator. Allison brings in the wrath of hell. And, if anything goes wrong, Gage is the re-animator. Dead troops? No problem. Gage brings them back with a different soul inside. The ones Allison or Jess bring.”
“Why do they need me?” Jess asked. “If they’ve got Allison…”
“Ghosts are drawn to you,” Allison said. “And they can’t always count on me. Demons aren’t known to let their hosts live very long. You’re the backup.”
Gage’s forehead wrinkled in concern. “So, it’s like you’re the conduit, but Jess is the magnet?”
Allison nodded and eyed the house. “Yeah. We might all be able to see ghosts, but without Jess, the odds go way down. Again, it’s speculation, like Gage said. You guys could just be the control factors in the group. The point is, they have plans for me. Plans I want no part of.”
“Can they do that? Can they force her to do things for them?” Jess asked.
“Possible,” Gage replied.
“What do we do?” Bryan asked, pacing now. “We just can’t sit here and wait for this to go down.”
“Easy,” Gage said to him. He shrugged. “We give them what they want. We do a séance or we use the Ouija board. Except we all fake it. We blank our minds, we don’t call for anything or anyone.” He gave Jess a quick glance. “Not in front of them, anyway.”
Bryan laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
“What else are we supposed to do?” Gage asked. “The spirits are getting stronger. What do you think will happen? You think that if the ghosts get stronger then EPAC or Brandt will let us walk out of here? They’ll think they’ve struck pay dirt. You heard Allison. We end this. In front of Brandt, we fake it the best way we can. But when we’re together, we practice. We exterminate everything here that’s supernatural. If the reading and sightings vanish, there’s no experiment. There’s no reason for them to want us.”
“What if something else comes for us in the meantime? What if it’s Riley?” Bryan asked.
“Then we’ll crank up the juice before that happens.” Gage turned to Allison. “Look, I know you don’t want any part of this and I don’t blame you. None of us do, either. Not like this. You saw what happened to Brandt. You and Jess saw this Riley dude. Now, you’re telling us that he’s getting stronger the longer we’re here and we’ve got to be able to protect ourselves somehow. I think that means you and Jess need to keep your eyes open. We could use some help, though.” His gaze moved to Jess. “Maybe those two girls you keep seeing are your first recruits. They should have one hell of a grudge against Riley.”
“They’ve been dead forever,” Allison argued. “And they’ve been here for too long.”
Gage shook his head. “What’s that supposed to mean? We either sit here and do nothing and wait for this douchebag Riley to come after us, or we take our best shot at ending this experiment and getting out of here. I’m all for getting the hell out of Dodge.”
Allison nodded, but looked defeated.
“After we show Brandt and EPAC we don’t have any mojo, we’ll try our own séance,” Gage continued. “Without anyone else looking. One shot. Just Jess’s dad and those two girls. Don’t bring anything else back. No matter what. Everyone got that?”
Jess shook her head along with the others. “What about—”
“We can’t go looking for Ben,” Gage replied sharply. “I don’t want my brother to set one ghostly foot in this place.”